Monday, May 17, 2010

Gracious readers, I need some help. I have a vast compendium of stories and quotes about reading that I'm drawing on for my book, but there is one story I can't find — I may not have saved it. And though I have mad Googling skillz they have let me down this time.

Here's what I remember: it was a newspaper article that quoted a college student saying that he didn't see any point in reading books because he could get the necessary information more efficiently online. I found that interesting because it reflects a certain idea about reading that I want to contest, i.e., that's it's fundamentally a way of uploading information to the brain.

And here's what I think I remember: the guy was class president, and maybe even student body president, at a university in Florida, and was a philosophy major. (That last item really caught my attention.)

You'd think with all that information I'd be able to track down the story . . . but no. So I would be thankful for any help y'all can give me.

'I don’t read books per se, I go to Google and I can absorb relevant information quickly. some of this comes from books. But sitting down and going through a book from cover to cover doesn’t make sense. It’s not a good use of my time as I an get all the information I need faster through the web. You need to know how to do it — to be a skilled hunter.'"

Alan, for whatever it's worth, I recognized the quote you were looking for as soon as I saw it because Nicholas Carr uses it prominently in his new book The Shallows: What the Internet is Doing to Our Brains. It's a great book--I'm reviewing it now--and you'll definitely want to give it a look as part of wherever your current research is leading you.

And incidentally, the student in question was a philosophy major and a Rhodes Scholar. Ugh.

It's all coming back to me now, Russell — it was Carr's book (I got galleys of it) that led me to Tapscott's book. I haven't decided whether to review Carr's book yet, but I was somewhat disappointed in it. I felt that he spent too much time rehashing the arguments of others and not enough developing his own, which is a particular shame because Carr is one of the sharpest cultural critics around. But your comment makes me think that I had better read it again. . . .

I have a vast compendium of stories and quotes about reading that I'm drawing on for my book,

Well, I can't help you with the specific story, but have you read Steven Berlin Johnson's essay "Tool for Thought" regarding DevonThink Pro?: http://www.stevenberlinjohnson.com/movabletype/archives/000230.html . I ask because having DTP changed my work habits (for the better, I think), and is making my life easier in a lot of ways.

Alan, I respect your judgment, and heaven knows your far more widely read in this area than I am. And it's true that Nick's book is a synthesis of neurological science, literary theory, textual history, and psychological research, all done by others. But many syntheses are greater than the sum of their parts, and I can't help but thing that Nick has put all these arguments together in a way that is very persuasive indeed.

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Commentary on technologies of reading, writing, research, and, generally, knowledge. As these technologies change and develop, what do we lose, what do we gain, what is (fundamentally or trivially) altered? And, not least, what's fun?